Disclaimers:
All characters derived from Television serious Ben 10 Alien Force and all related content; none of the aliens and the like belong to me. Storyline and plot are my boasting rights and I beta chapters by myself.

Well, all I can say is that Chapter two was a serious pain in the ass to write.
I hope I didn't take the characters out of their personalities too much. It's something I'm always very paranoid about, for some reason. I guess it's annoying to readers if it happens too much.
Oh well. Enjoy, I guess.

"No way. You take your claw off him or I'll make sure you can't feel your fingers... Oops, weak joke." Kevin growled menacingly. Rojo glared at him and smirked as she yanked on the wire, causing Ben to choke. Gwen made a grab for him, but was too slow as Rojo pulled her cousin by her side. Her other hand was raised to his thin throat and Ben inclined his head up as high as he could to escape the sharpness of her nails.

For the first time, Kevin faltered. She was right. This was too much of a coincidence. Gwen walked up cautiously, leaving Julie to stand close to the house, helpless. "What do you mean." She asked Rojo.
"In other words..." Kevin lowered his upper body and got ready to dart forward when he saw an opening. Rojo took a wise step back. "Tell us or I'll pluck your face off, bit by bit." He threatened.
"Levin, I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation here." She chastised him like a child. She leaned down and smirked as a small bead of blood formed where her nail pierced Ben's pale neck. His green eyes weren't reflecting fear of any sort; they were furious and angered. Kevin tsked loudly and shook his raven black hair out of his eyes. "I'm stronger and faster than I once was. No one's getting to me any longer. Why the hell do you think that witch's freaky ass pink things aren't working? Why do you think this kid's watch is malfunctioning?" She smirked.

She shook her head. "Oh, so stupid. Levin, you should know I'm doing this stupid child a favour." Ben bristled at the provocation, but maintained his surrendering position for the betterment of his neck. "And you, witch," Gwen glared heavily at her for the name, "Would be wise to back the hell off away from me. That is... unless you want to lose your gift completely." She smirked. Gwen immediately took a step back. Ben coughed as Rojo tightened her grip.

"Ben!" Julie cried out as she heard his cry. Kevin tsked again and Gwen looked angry.

"That doesn't explain a thing to us." Kevin growled angrily. Julie walked up to them.

"What are you waiting for?" she asked, clearly the most concerned any of them had seen her. "Let him go..." she muttered, afraid as she turned to Rojo. Then, louder, "LET HIM GO!" They could all see how angry Ben was becoming. What Kevin didn't expect was how Julie ran up to Rojo, reaching out in anger to strike the insane Cyborg girl. "DON'T HURT HIM!" she screamed. Kevin and Gwen reached out for her but it was too late.
"NO!" Ben shouted, but Rojo had Julie pinned against the wall with her other hand. "Julie!" he yelled. With Rojo's other hand free, his neck was unthreatened by her claws. "DON'T HURT HER! SHE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS!" He shouted at his enemy.

"That," Rojo glared at Julie as she released her dramatically, causing the slim Japanese girl to fold on the floor, "Won't stop me from killing anyone in my way." She growled, as though challenging them. She was caught off guard as Kevin crashed into her, taking his best gamble at an opening. Ben looked at Kevin with wide eyes before he noted the large gash on Kevin's torso. Rojo glared at her attacker as Kevin yelled in pain, one of Rojo's claws having pierced into his skin. "YOU STUPID PIECE OF SHI..." she shouted. Kevin punched her and held her down with his strong hand, pulsing with his Osmosian blood.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WAITING FOR, YOUR BLOODY BARMITSFA!" He shouted at Ben, who woke up and backed away, his arm around Julie as he supported her. Gwen ran up to them and pulled them back into the house as they stood as protected as they could be from Kevin and Rojo's fight. "Screw this... couldn't you wait till Monday?" he asked Rojo, who promptly growled as she heard this.

"Villains have no days off or public holidays, idiot." She growled lowly as they started grappling. He landed her a hit and she pulled off, coughing. Just then, Ben managed the Ultimatrix and he went into Heatblast mode. He made it to the driveway, but Rojo seemed to take on a confused expression. Kevin backed off for awhile as he and Ben rounded on her, the seventeen year old allowed his hands to burst into flame. "Impossible." She whispered, and Kevin glared at her, looking at Ben who looked equally as confused. "It shouldn't be possib..."

"What are you talking about, you crazy bitch?" he asked, unable to hold in his questioned. "Why are you... what do you want with the Ultimatrix?" he asked, and Rojo shook her head.

"All I know is that... Whatever it is, Tennyson's days are numbered." She grumbled, as though she were equally as pissed that was all she knew. It was liable to be the case. Kevin ran up to her, but she had begun to run as well, and she was faster unwounded. For some reason Ben wasn't moving from the spot. "There's nothing left to do. I'm going." She growled, and just as Kevin reached out, jumping the fence, she was gone in a flash of light that looked suspiciously like alien technology. He cried out in pain as his gut pulsed and he doubled over, crashing to the floor in agony.

Kevin awoke in agony. Odd. He didn't recall anything happening before this, aside from his fingers poised for a mean game of Assassin's Creed II. Oh wait, no... It was all coming back.

He sat up abruptly, and was immediately given one hell of a migraine by three very energetic and concerned people. "DON'T GET UP!" Gwen screamed at him as he covered his ear comically. Julie ran to get him something to drink. He sincerely hoped it was coffee. Ben started pacing. His body seemed accustomed to the movement and Kevin wondered briefly how long they'd been waiting for him to wake up. He didn't seem to be in a hospital; the clean scent of antiseptic wasn't present in the air. It smelt homely and comfortable. He slowly leaned back against his arms, beginning to literally feel the stupidity of making sudden movements. He groaned a pain shot through his gut. He lowered his gaze and rolled his eyes and growled in annoyance at the bandages that adorned his naked torso.

"God damn it." He sighed, and took the coffee Julie presented him with relish. He downed it in seconds. "Where am I? What happened? Aside from that crazy bitch scratching my innards out, I mean." He dramatized. Ben paused and shook his head. Gwen bit her nails and paused several times as though she was about to say something but didn't. Kevin began to get annoyed and irritated.

Surprisingly, Julie spoke up. "Rojo was right about Gwen." She admitted, and Kevin cocked his head, confused. "Her powers are weaker now more than ever. After some research in the Plumbers database, we've managed to..."

"How the hell did you guys get into the Plumber's database anyway?" Kevin asked, suspicious.

"We hacked in." Gwen said simply. Julie blinked and continued.

"Rojo possessed something that was thought to be completely gone. It was a fragment of an ancient rune that had special properties." She walked to the side table and opened the drawer, taking out a stack of papers and flipped through it. She handed the booklet to Kevin, who promptly scanned the lines, and lay the stack down on his lap. "It had the ability to wreck someone's altered DNA. In other words, Gwen couldn't do anything because Rojo had her DNA checked down... and Ben couldn't do anything either because..."
Kevin looked up at Ben. For a moment, he wasn't listening to Julie at all. The boy looked alarmingly serious as he stopped pacing and looked out of the window. The late afternoon sun beat down on Ben's matured face and Kevin watched as his dark green eyes possessed certain anger. He wondered if he was still angry about Rojo hurting Julie and concluded it must have been that. "Hold up. Ben could still transform, couldn't he?" he asked, and Julie shook her head.

"Ben collapsed after you bolted after Rojo. He couldn't move. The only reason why he could have transformed would probably be because he had accumulated enough energy to, but once he'd walked within close proximity to Rojo again, he couldn't do anything again... the fragment that was in her possession ensured it." Gwen interjected, and then her hand curled into a fist.
"But what about me? I'm an Osmosian. I should have had my DNA affected too; why didn't anything hinder my powers?" Kevin asked, confused. Julie shook her head.
"We don't know." The Japanese girl exhaled sadly.

"Damn it! We have no clue how many of those God damn fragments are out there." Gwen growled.

Ben turned to look at all three of them. "That aside, there was another disturbing thing we learnt." He told Kevin, and he walked up to the table and grabbed at an apple, biting into it. Chewing thoughtfully, he flicked his fringe out of his eyes. "Apparently this watch is nothing more than a ticking time bomb." He said as Gwen and Julie exchanged looks. Hissing, Kevin swung his legs from the side of the bed, ignoring Gwen's weak protests.
"What do you mean?" he asked. They all know that the Ultimatrix was as temperamental as a menopausal woman, but it had never been described as anything remotely close to a ticking time bomb. Ben turned around and sighed heavily as he regarded the contraption jammed tight to his wrist, wired into his DNA.

"Apparently, the Ultimatrix utilizes a person's DNA as a raw specimen to contort and generate new experiments and to create new species." Ben explained. "But it, like everything else, has an extent to which it reaches. And when it's finished, it kills the user." He smiled at Kevin, whose eyes were wide as he regarded the young Tennyson.

"Coincidentally, we've discovered the Ultimatrix's expiry date is pretty much almost here. And I'm probably... no, I actually AM, going to die."

Omai. Ben's going to die?
I hope not! But since I run and gun my writing, I never plan. I should really change that because it pisses me off... I never have any clue how my own story's going to end up.
Stupid, I know...

Please review, it's vair', vair, appreciated.